Max Hicks was one of several Geneva College players who made it to the professional level in football.

Max was born November 6, 1892, in Beaver Falls, PA, and attended Beaver Falls High School. Max enrolled at Indiana University of Pennsylvania before transferring to Geneva College, where he played football in 1915.

In 1918, Max joined the U.S. Army and served with the Army Medical Corps at Camp Greenleaf in Georgia. Joining Max on the Camp Greenleaf football team were several University of Pittsburgh football players, including guard John Bain "Jock" Sutherland, the future legendary coach for the University of Pittsburgh and the Pittsburgh Steelers. It was that year that Camp Greenleaf formally sanctioned football and when Sutherland had his first experience coaching football. Camp Greenleaf won the 1918 Army Eastern Cantonment football title.

The following year, in 1919, Max played semi-pro football for the Cleveland Tigers in the Ohio League. In 1920, Max played a game for the Hammond Pros, which had been an independent team in 1919 but in 1920 joined the American Professional Football Association (nka the National Football League). The Hammond Pros met many challenges with so many players having full-time jobs outside of football, and the team did not have a home field, due to limited areas with ample seating capacity. The Hammond Pros played all their games on the road as a traveling team, with a 2-5 record that season.

In 1921, Max served as a player and coach for the Hammond Pros, including a November 6 game against Pro Football Hall of Famer Paddy Driscoll of the Chicago Cardinals (nka the Arizona Cardinals) in a 7-0 loss in Normal Park in Chicago, IL. One week later, November 13, 1921, Max coached against Pro Football Hall of Famer Curly Lambeau of the Green Bay Packers in a 7-0 loss. During his lone season as a player/coach with the Hammond Pros, Max compiled a record of 1-3-1. He played in one game and was the head coach in all five games.

Edward Francis "Max" Hicks died November 12, 1944, at age 52, in Sawtelle, CA.